really simple syndication? a study of health sciences ...179905/thursday_campbell… · really...

Really Simple Syndication? A study of health sciences faculty and medical residents’ adoption of a new technology following instruction.

Thane Chambers, Sandy Campbell, and Dale StorieJohn W. Scott Health Sciences LibraryUniversity of AlbertaEdmonton, Canada

International Congress on Medical Librarianship

Hypothesis

Health Sciences faculty and medical residents do not use RSS feeds to manage current awareness information, because they have not time to teach themselves how to use them, but, once given basic instruction, will implement and use them.


Three phases of the study

General surveyInstruction

Pre-session surveyPost session evaluation

Follow-up survey


General Survey

Administered through Survey MonkeySent to 3194 faculty, clinical instructors, and medical residents:

School of Public HealthPharmacy and Pharmaceutical SciencesNursingRehabilitation MedicineMedicine and Dentistry

164 respondents


How do health sciences faculty and residents stay up-to-date?

Read/browse current issues of journals/magazines/newspapers 86.7%

Talk to colleagues/friends/students 83.2%E-mail alerts 61.9%Journal club 49.6%Newsletters 29.2%Table of Contents service 25.7%Media (TV/Radio) 23.0%Listserv 17.7%Other (please specify) 16.8%RSS feed 7.1%Employ Graduate Students or Research Assistants

to get information 6.2%Personalized home page (eg. iGoogle) 6.2%Read a blog 5.3%


Survey Results

84% had never used RSS feeds

89.9% were interested in attending an instruction session on RSS feeds


RSS Use by Respondents – Pre‐Class Survey

■ Only 1 person had tried RSS

■ No one was using it regularly


Instructional Sessions

4 classes - 23 attendeesOpen to anyonePre-class survey and post-class evaluationOffered one-on-one follow-up for additional help



The way most people use the web


The way RSS can change how you use the web

Instruction50 minute sessionShort PowerPoint demo Hands-on workshop in computer lab

3 librarians helping people get signed onPaper Handouts

List of RSS Readersscreenshots of how to create OVID and CINAHL feeds


Instruction

Everyone signed up for Google Reader In-Browser feed reader



Post-Instruction Survey■ Feedback was overall positive

■ Enjoyed the hands-on approach

■ 100% said the session was helpful and that they would recommend the session to a friend

■ 3 attendees asked for follow-up appointments

Follow-up Survey

About 2 months after instructionOn-line survey through Survey Monkey15 faculty/residents responded


Did instruction make a difference?


I have been more aware of RSS feeds 75%I have recommended the use of RSS feeds

for current awareness to someone 55%I have used my RSS service to receive

more information 50%I have had a conversation with someone

about RSS feeds 45%I have done nothing with RSS feeds 40%I set up my RSS feed and now I'm getting

too much information 25%I set up my RSS feed, but I'm not using it 10%I tried to set up an RSS feed and it didn’t work 0%

Barriers

“I have not had time to fully implement it.”

“It can take a while to get your RSS feed to perform like you want it to.”

“A bit overwhelming having so much information coming in every day.”

“Some of the sites I use regularly don’t offer RSS feeds.”


Subsidiary Effects

“I taught the rest of my team”Faculty member used slides for rural physicians training seminarFollow-up one-on-one requestsRequest from one of the faculties for alerts whenever any faculty member’s paper is cited.


Conclusion

If you teach it, they will use it.


Thank you for your attention!

Questions?


really simple syndication? a study of health sciences ...179905/thursday_campbell… · really...

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